Download or read book The Power of Discourse in Ritual Performance written by Ulrich Demmer and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2007 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the ways discourse is used in ritual performances as an important medium of power, enabling speakers/actors to construct, redefine and transform interpersonal relationships, cultural concepts and worldviews. The various case studies gathered here, from South Asia, South East Asia, Africa and South America, show that recent developments in linguistic anthropology, ritual theory and performance studies provide new conceptual tools to take a fresh look at these issues. Foregrounding pragmatic approaches to language and discourse, they explore the social dynamics of rhetorical discourse, text and context, normativity and creativity, the poetics of dialogue and speech, as well as the manifold interactions of speakers, addressees and audience. The volume thus embraces both the micro-level of speech activities as well as the macro-level of social and political relationships and brings out the subtle workings of control, authority, and power in situations marked as ritual. The contributions, all based on extensive fieldwork, include many concrete samples of speech and discourse which give an authentic impression of the different voices and make for vivid reading.
Download or read book Negotiating Rites written by Ute Husken and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual has been long viewed as an undisputed and indisputable part of (especially religious) tradition, performed over and over in the same ways: stable in form, meaningless, preconcieved, and with the aim of creating harmony and enabling a tradition's survival. The authors represented in this collection argue, however, that this view can be seriously challenged and that ritual's embeddedness in negotiation processes is one of its central features.
Download or read book Seven Days of Nectar written by McComas Taylor and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thousand-year-old Sanskrit classic the Bhagavatapurana, or 'Stories of the Lord', is the foundational source of narratives concerning the beloved Hindu deity Krishna. For centuries pious individuals, families, and community groups have engaged specialist scholar-orators to give week-long oral performances based on this text. In recent years, these events have grown in number, scale, and popularity, filling vast public arenas, such as sports stadiums, and attracting live audiences in the tens of thousands while being simulcast around the world. In Seven Days of Nectar, McComas Taylor uncovers the factors that contribute to the explosive growth of this tradition.
Download or read book Ritual A Very Short Introduction written by Barry Stephenson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual is part of what it means to be human. Like sports, music, and drama, ritual defines and enriches culture, putting those who practice it in touch with sources of value and meaning larger than themselves. Ritual is unavoidable, yet it holds a place in modern life that is decidedly ambiguous. What is ritual? What does it do? Is it useful? What are the various kinds of ritual? Is ritual tradition bound and conservative or innovative and transformational? Alongside description of a number of specific rites, this Very Short Introduction explores ritual from both theoretical and historical perspectives. Barry Stephenson focuses on the places where ritual touches everyday life: in politics and power; moments of transformation in the life cycle; as performance and embodiment. He also discusses the boundaries of ritual, and how and why certain behaviors have been studied as ritual while others have not. Stephenson shows how ritual is an important vehicle for group and identity formation; how it generates and transmits beliefs and values; how it can be used to exploit and oppress; and how it has served as a touchstone for thinking about cultural origins and historical change. Encompassing the breadth and depth of modern ritual studies, Barry Stephenson's Very Short Introduction also develops a narrative of ritual's place in social and cultural life. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book Ritual Textuality written by Matt Tomlinson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-14 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic question in studies of ritual is how ritual performances achieve-or fail to achieve-their effects. In this pathbreaking book, Matt Tomlinson argues that participants condition their own expectations of ritual success by interactively creating distinct textual patterns of sequence, conjunction, contrast, and substitution. Drawing on long-term research in Fiji, Ritual Textuality presents in-depth studies of each of these patterns, taken from a wide range of settings: a fiery, soul-saving Pentecostal crusade; relaxed gatherings at which people drink the narcotic beverage kava; deathbeds at which missionaries eagerly await the signs of good Christians' "happy deaths"; and the monologic pronouncements of a military-led government determined to make the nation speak in a single voice. In each of these cases, Tomlinson also examines the broad ideologies of motion which frame participants' ritual actions, such as Pentecostals' beliefs that effective worship requires ecstatic movement like jumping, dancing, and clapping, and nineteenth-century missionaries' insistence that the journeys of the soul in the afterlife should follow a new path. By approaching ritual as an act of "entextualization"-in which the flow of discourse is turned into object-like texts-while analyzing the ways people expect words, things, and selves to move in performance, this book presents a new and compelling way to understand the efficacy of ritual action.
Download or read book Schooling as a Ritual Performance written by Peter McLaren and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1999 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this third edition, Peter McLaren engages with some of the latest anthropological thinking and presents the reader with a powerful manifesto for critical ethnography in the 21st century.
Download or read book Circus as Multimodal Discourse written by Paul Bouissac and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback, this volume presents a theory of the circus as a secular ritual and introduces a method to analyze its performances as multimodal discourse. The book's fifteen chapters cover the range of circus specialties (magic, domestic and wild animal training, acrobatics, and clowning) and provide examples to show how cultural meaning is produced, extended and amplified by circus performances. Bouissac is one of the world's leading authorities on circus ethnography and semiotics and this work is grounded on research conducted over a 50 year span in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. It concludes with a reflection on the potentially subversive power of this discourse and its contemporary use by activists. Throughout, it endeavours to develop an analytical approach that is mindful of the epistemological traps of both positivism and postmodernist license. It brings semiotics and ethnography to bear on the realm of the circus.
Download or read book Discourse in Ritual Studies written by Hans Schilderman and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discourse in Ritual Studies" offers an introduction into the study of public worship from the perspective of ritual studies.The contributing authors confront an action-oriented and empirical approach of ritual studies with perennial and normative questions that characterize the study of liturgy.
Download or read book Power in Performance written by Joel C. Kuipers and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the Weyewa of the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba, spokesmen seek to inscribe their traditions and sacred obligations through ritual speaking performances. In a series of lively poetic dialogues, performers use a distinctive couplet style to pursue the trail of their ancestors.
Download or read book Ritual Theatre written by Claire Schrader and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual theatre is a powerful healing system that has been practised since ancient times by early societies and in tribal communities. It has the ability to effect deep transformation in its participants, support growth and development, and resolve personal issues. This book considers the relevance of ritual theatre in contemporary life and describes how it is being used as a highly cathartic therapeutic process. With contributions from leading experts in the field of dramatherapy, the book brings together a broad spectrum of approaches to ritual theatre as a healing system. It explores the anthropological and tribal roots of dramatic ritual and proposes that ritual theatre finds its most potent expression in personal development work. The practical application of ritual theatre in various clinical settings is discussed and the final chapters explore the possibilities of ritual theatre as performance. Offering a comprehensive discourse on the theory, application and potential of ritual theatre, this book will be an essential text for all students and practitioners of dramatherapy, arts therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists, counsellors and theatre professionals.
Download or read book The Performance of Healing written by Carol Laderman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medical systems need to be understood from within, as experienced by healers, patients, and others whose minds and hearts have both become involved in this important human undertaking. Exploring how the performance of healing transforms illness to health, initiate to ritual specialist, the authors show that performance does not merely refer to, but actually does something in the world. These essays on the performance of healing in societies ranging from rainforest horticulturalists to dwellers in the American megalopolis will touch readers' senses as well as their intellects.
Download or read book Sourcebook on Rhetoric written by James Jasinski and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2001-07-19 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is designed to introduce readers to the language of contemporary rhetorical studies. The book format is an alphabetized glossary (with appropriate cross listings) of key terms and concepts in contemporary rhetorical studies. An introductory chapter outlines the definitional ambiguities of the central concept of rhetoric itself. The primary emphasis is on the contemporary tradition of rhetorical studies as it has emerged in the discipline of speech communication. Each entry in the glossary ranges in length from a few paragraphs to a short essay of a few pages. Where appropriate, examples are provided to further illustrate the term or concept. Each entry will be accompanied by a list of references and additional readings to direct the reader to other materials of possible interest.
Download or read book Sourcebook on Rhetoric written by and published by SAGE. This book was released on with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Musical Ritual in Mexico City written by Mark Pedelty and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2009-06-03 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the Zócalo, the main square of Mexico City, Mexico's entire musical history is performed every day. "Mexica" percussionists drum and dance to the music of Aztec rituals on the open plaza. Inside the Metropolitan Cathedral, choristers sing colonial villancicos. Outside the National Palace, the Mexican army marching band plays the "Himno Nacional," a vestige of the nineteenth century. And all around the square, people listen to the contemporary sounds of pop, rock, and música grupera. In all, some seven centuries of music maintain a living presence in the modern city. This book offers an up-to-date, comprehensive history and ethnography of musical rituals in the world's largest city. Mark Pedelty details the dominant musical rites of the Aztec, colonial, national, revolutionary, modern, and contemporary eras, analyzing the role that musical ritual played in governance, resistance, and social change. His approach is twofold. Historical chapters describe the rituals and their functions, while ethnographic chapters explore how these musical forms continue to resonate in contemporary Mexican society. As a whole, the book provides a living record of cultural continuity, change, and vitality.
Download or read book Conjuring Culture written by Theophus Harold Smith and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1994 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In "Conjuring Culture", Theophus Smith provides an innovative, interdisciplinary interpretation of the formation of African-American religion and culture. Smith argues for the central role in black spirituality of "conjure"--a magical means of transforming reality. Smith shows that the Bible, the sacred text of Western civilization, has in fact functioned as a magical formulary or sourcebook for African-Americans.
Download or read book AFFECTING PERFORMANCE written by Corinne Ann Kratz and published by Smithsonian Books (DC). This book was released on 1994 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining symbolic interpretation, discourse analysis, semiotics, history, political economy, and gender studies, Corinne A. Kratz examines the power of ritual to produce social transformation and explores how children are made into adults through initiation rites. Taking girls' passage into womanhood as her topic, Kratz considers dramatic structure, costume, song, ritual space, and the discourse, rhetoric, and poetics of ceremonial performance.
Download or read book Dance and Authenticity in Israel and Palestine written by Elke Kaschl and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dance and Authenticity" is an ethnography of dance performance and cultural form. It describes how "dabkeh," a type of dance performed at Palestinian weddings, became a model for the Israeli Jewish "debkah" as a means of affirming Israeli Jewish belonging and common society. The Palestinian "dabkeh," in turn, acquired nationalist meanings, especially after the 1967 war and the occupation of the West Bank. The book traces the history of these competing, and conflicting, dance forms, basing the argument principally on the ethnographic study of two Palestinian and one Israeli Jewish dance group conducted between 1998 and 1999. The result is a fascinating parallel ethnography, showing how the ethnography of dance forms contributes to evolving notions of collective national and political identity in a context of unequal power.
